Here's the opening in picture form. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

The wise old man discovers the letter.

The mysterious note

A fancy screenwipe?

Zelda gets her magical necklace

The next frame of animation...

Enter your name.

Yes, the hilariously cheesy animated cutscenes are gone. Instead, they have been replaced with FMV video clips with "virtual sets." Yes, it's worse when you see it in motion. I've made this Quicktime clip of the entire opening so you can revel in the amazing acting and voiceover work:Watch a Quicktime video clip of the whole opening right here: FMV Opening Quicktime (13MB)So the story goes as follows: Ganon (once again called Gannon in the game), Lord of Darkness, has taken over the kingdom of Tolemac. But in breaking with his usual strategy, Ganon stayed away from Zelda this time around and nabbed Link, the defender of, er, Tolemac. Tolemac? Get it? Where are Gnik Ruhtra and Ris Tolecnal? Anyways, Ganon again takes the Triforce and blablabla Zelda to the rescue blablabla kingdom in peril blablabla go and rescue Link blablabla defeat Ganon. So far it sounds exactly like the other two CD-i games, but once the game starts you actually see a major difference to The Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil. Instead of a static map that lets you select your destination, Viridis actually tried to make this game more like a traditional Zelda game. Yes, there is an Overworld, complete with scrolling screens a la NES Zelda -- and the perspective is actually much like the more recent Link to the Past than the 2D view of Zelda 2 that inspired the first two CD-i games.

This is how the game begins. Zelda respawns at this point whenever she dies.

The game itself looks visually more pleasing than the previous two games, but the image of a better Zelda title is quickly crushed when you actually start to move Zelda around. Watch a Quicktime video clip of the game in action right here: Overworld Quicktime (6.1MB)Alas, the controls are once again so loose and the collision detection is so wonky that what initially looked like fun quickly turns into boredom. Here's how the basic game works: you walk to the edge of the screen, the game freezes and loads the next screen. Once it's done, you will find yourself on the adjacent screen, populated by three monsters. If you're unlucky, you will find yourself right on top of a monster and you will lose a heart. If not, you can use your staff to kill the monsters and get rupees or hearts back. Sadly, the controls are very laggy, so this is easier said than done. Your best bet is to just stand in one spot and keep on hitting your button and hope your enemies run into your staff or projectile. Watch me die in this movie: Zelda's Death Quicktime (3 MB)Turn the page for more...